Jim,

I am not Dan Druff, nor am I the person who dreamt up the Taliban abducts collector string. If Mary exists, and there has not been a single posting by anyone of that name since you rejoined the fray, then she must be in the same category as the Catholic who was caught eating meat on a Friday and said, "You are a fish, not a steak."

I have got much better things to do than waste time wading through your latest load of drivel. However, you have, this time, said several things which cannot be left unchallenged.

>Despite your claim that you devoted half of your 7,621 words to discussing Mrs Cronin's singing, I can only find 197 words on the subject, 92 of which are a 40 year old quote from Ewan MacColl so in all you wrote 105 of your own words on one of the most important Irish traditional singers<

Sorry Jim, you couldn't be more wrong if you'd tried. I have just done a wordcount of that review and this is how the review breaks down.

        -         12866 words of text
        -         1918 words of footnotes
        -         92 words quoting Ewan MacColl.

That comes to 14876 words, not 7621.

In other words you have read, at most, 59% of the body of the review or 51% of the entire piece, depending on how you derived your figure of 7621 words. On those grounds we can cheerfully dismiss all the lies and invective and slanders and libellous accusations which you have thrown at me over the years.

>As far as I can find, you made no effort whatsoever to discuss her songs.<

See above. What a pity you didn't read the whole review.

>If I have misjudged you in any way it should be an easy enough matter to put me right with a few quotes.<

I did, in my final submission to IRTRAD. Ahh, now I see it. That figure of 197 words has been taken from the list of quotes I included in that posting! What a pity you didn't bother to read the whole review.

>I did of course enjoy The Road From Connemara, though that was more to do with the work that Joe, Ewan and Peggy put in rather than your efforts.<

Really ? Who do you think spent twelve months producing that release and editing the interview text for publication, and writing the introduction, which you couldn't be bothered to read ? This may come as a shock to you, but I did far more work on that project than anyone else, Ewan and Peggy included. It is typical of your curmudgeonly attitude that you couldn't admit the same.

>I felt, as did others over here, that it would have been preferable if the editing and notes had been carried out by an Irish-speaker who knew Connemara.<

Wrong again. The interview was conducted in English and I am as qualified as anyone to edit text in that language. Moreover, I know Conamara extremely well and have spent a lot of time there over the years. The Gaelic parts of the interview, namely some of the songs and a few snatches of Irish text, were transcribed by Éamonn Ó Bróithe. He is an expert on the Irish language, who was then working for Bord na Gaelige in Conamara. If you had bothered to read the interview and introduction - whilst also bothering to read the Cronin review - you would also recall that Liam Mac Con Iomaire - the author of the CD booklet biography - is acknowledged as one of the people I consulted over the interview.

>I was very perturbed at your 'blatant piracy' posting to Irtrad when you objected to somebody else passing on the material.<

Wrong again. I was perturbed at the fact that William Kennedy posted over 1,000 words of that interview on the IRTRAD site without asking anyone and without crediting anyone. Yes, MacColl was extremely generous with his material, but he would have been extremely annoyed to see his work pirated without anyone asking permission, and quite rightly so. Seeking permission and acknowledging sources are basic of good manners. I expect such things of myself, and I expect them of others.

>I confess I was not aware of your analysis of MacColl's ideology; I will make up for that lack of knowledge as soon as I am able to see if it is in fact the "only concise analysis of MacColl's ideological and theoretical perspective on folksong that has ever been published".<

I doubt you would understand much of it, but by all means make up for lost time. That essay has only been online for the past six years. While you are at it, you would might also want to read my essay on the radio ballads at hhttp://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/rad_bal.htm . I could be wrong, but again, as far as I know, this essay breaks previously unpublished ground.

Come to think of it, and you evidently haven't explored Musical Traditions anywhere near as much as you enjoy excoriating it, there is a whole string of reviews and articles of mine in there, which you haven't read. Try my work on the Hammons Family for instance. You wouldn't think much of it, but Alan Jabbour, one time head of the Archive of Folk Song at the Library of Congress, who worked closely with the Hammons's, was good enough to contact me and tell me how he admired the piece.

For that matter a Johnny Come Lately to Musical Traditions might also enjoy reading my review of Frank Harte's '98 disc and my pieces on the Revenant Charley Patton retrospective, the Romania volume of the Columbia World Library, the Dust to Digital set, Goodbye, Babylon and many more. Before attempting the wholesale slaughter of my character, over one single review, you would have been well advised to study my Musical Traditions CV.

>I do find your attitude to MacColl somewhat ambivalent.<

Wrong yet again. There is nothing ambivalent in acknowledging and admiring genius, whilst recognising the existence of a few flaws. Indeed, an even hand approach is essential to the assessment of any great individual. Your trouble is that you regard any kind of critical discussion of MacColl, outside your own circle of course, as something akin to treachery. EG., your furious reaction to Geoff Wallis's perfectly innocent question over MacColl's desertion from the army during world war two. Well, you need deny no longer. I have posted the proof at the bottom of this reply.

>The interview that appears in Mike Brocken's 'The British Folk Revival' attributed to you, springs to mind. "He (MacColl) would allow only three floor singers and would cancel them all at a whim if he thought it necessary….. That's the way he ran things; for himself".<

Ah, now we're coming round to it. That's the reason Pat wouldn't speak to me at Salford. One tiny little quote and that was me ostracised. You, on the other hand told Geoff Wallis that you wouldn't speak to me because you didn't like the t shirt I was wearing. I have my own opinion of the state of sanity of the pair of you. I shall leave it to others to decide for themselves.

>I know this to be an extremely inaccurate description of MacColl and The Singers Club<

On the contrary, it is an accurate summary. Three floor singers was all that were allowed, and they were given one song each. It was usually the first three singers who put their names down on the list. And I saw MacColl abandon the "singers from the floor race", as you used to call it, on at least two occasions. The limited space given to floor singers was something which you and Pat complained of to me. If the complaint was good enough to be aired in private, then why not in public ?

>In fairness to yourself I have to admit to being somewhat puzzled by the quote as, when we last met some years ago in Salford you told me –and several others – that you had never given an interview to Mike Brocken, so maybe there has been a mix-up somewhere along the line. Admittedly he did attribute the interviews to 'Fred McCormick, singer' so there may well be another bearing that name.<

Sorry Jim, I can live without the sarcasm. I am a singer, and a well accredited one and you know it. What's more, I am one of the few people left in this country who has taken the trouble to learn the craft of singing from traditional singers and is still ut there keeping the songs alive. It shows a rare meanness of spirit that you cannot even acknowledge the same.

It is true that I never gave an interview to Mike, that remark having been made off the cuff, and I was not very pleased when it appeared in his thesis. However, like Ewan MacColl, I am generous with my help to people, and with my opinions.

>I really do not know what is happening with you or Musical Traditions Fred. It appears to me that you set out quite deliberately to rubbish a published collection of songs from one of Ireland's greatest traditional singers<

We have been over this so many times that I am totally sick of it. I attacked the hard copy side of that publication because it needed attacking. I did not attack Elizabeth Cronin or her collection of songs. The fact that you cannot assess the shortcomings of that volume is indication of your own lack of knowledge and scholastic ability.

>for which you received the full support of the editor.<

Wrong yet again. I wrote that review without consulting Rod Stradling. He posted it with considerable reluctance, and you may want to read his comment at the end of the review, if it is still there. Unfortunately, like you, Rod is not a scholar and his knowledge of Irish folksong is, by his own admission, extremely limited. What's more, he had not read the book and he had no idea of how bad it is. It was not until Dáibhí Ó Cróinín emailed him to admit that the transcriptions were seriously in error that Rod realised I might have a point. Subsequent to that, he wrote a supportive editorial in my favour. It is still on the Musical Traditions website.

>Last year another Musical Traditional reviewer set out to rubbish a collection of Clare singers....................Again this reviewer received the support of the editor.<

Wrong yet again. I happen to know that Geoff and Rod had some discussions about that review and the state of your booklet, before he put pen to paper. But he did not receive "the support of the editor". Straightening out the mess that is The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin was something which I felt I had to do. I am semi-retired and I could afford to take the three months out of my life, which it took to research and write. Geoff, on the other hand, is a professional writer and it is testimony to his integrity that he took the time and the trouble to clarify the appalling mess which is your booklet.

(Incidentally, you accused him of insulting traditional singers. That is quite untrue, as anyone who has made an unbiased reading of the review will confirm. Even so, your comment raises an interesting question. Why should traditional singers be treated differently to anyone else ? You have a most unenviable reputation for sniggering and sneering at practically everyone connected with the folk revival. If you expect Geoff Wallis or anyone else to show good manners, you would do well to set an example.

>Is this really how you people see your role in the field of traditional music? Some time ago you described yourself as the assistant editor of Musical Traditions.<

Sorry Jim, I am the co-editor of Musical Traditions, although personal problems have forced me to take a back seat over the past few years.

>Are we to assume that your approach is the in-house style of reviewing?<

There is no in-house style of reviewing as you would know if you had troubled to read the policy statement at http://www.mustrad.org.uk/policy.htm

Overall, I am driven to the same conclusion as that held by many other people, that you are extremely fond of mercilessly attacking everybody you take exception to. You just cannot take it when the boot is on the other foot.

Incidentally, apropos of all your quibbling with Geoff over "Jim and Pat's", here's part of a sentence with a pair of possessive pronouns. It comes from the 2005 Charles Parker Archive Annual Report and Accounts and it was written by Peter Merriman. "In a chapter on the motorway's construction I looked at how MacColl, Parker and Seeger's exposition.........".

Finally, as mentioned earlier, here is the synopsis of the file which MI5 held on Ewan MacColl. The complete file up to 1955 can be viewed at the National Archive at Kew.

.....................................................................

(1932-1951) records how Miller first came to the attention of the authorities in 1932 when the chief constable in Salford reported him as a Communist Party member of the Ramblers Section of the British Workers´ Sports Federation. A watch was initiated on his activities, and steps were taken to ascertain his exact status (i.e. whether directly employed by the BBC or not). In January 1939 the Lancashire police reported Miller´s performance at a rally: "my officer has been making enquiries regarding a youth named Jimmy MILLER who was the MC for the dancing…and showed exceptional ability as a singer and musical organiser." A watch was kept on Miller and Littlewoods´ broadcasting activities, and police mounted a ´discreet supervision´ of Oak Cottage in Higham Lane, Hyde, where the Millers were living, and reports of activities and visitors are on the file. Because of his Communist history, Miller was placed on the Special Observation List when he enlisted in the Army in July 1940 (well before the German invasion of the Soviet Union). The file includes a conduct report by his commanding officer, noting his generally good conduct and his outstanding contribution to the battalion concert party (and including the lyrics of his newly composed song, Browned Off), dated 16 December, just two days before Miller went absent without leave. The file includes some intercepted correspondence from the Millers when they wrote to contacts whose communications were being intercepted, but their own posts and telephone were not intercepted. The file includes photographs of Miller (both before and after he grew his beard) and Littlewood.
The story continues in KV 2/2176. The first use of the name Ewan MacColl is noted in March 1952, at a time when the authorities´ interest in Miller was revived as he reapplied to join the Communist Party (his previous membership having lapsed some years before). A copy of the application form in the name of Ewan MacColl is on this file. The file is mainly concerned with ongoing monitoring of Miller´s theatrical and radio work, but records his marriage to Joan Newlove, mother of Kirsty MacColl.